Helps was a composition
student of Sessions and also a very
able pianist who worked with such as
Copland, Rudolf Kolisch and Isidore
Cohen, amongst many. Active as a teacher
in University of South Florida and San
Francisco Conservatory, he continued
to propagate chamber and solo literature
and made numerous recordings. He gave
solo memorial concerts for Sessions
and a solo recital at Town Hall, New
York – which gives one an appreciation
of his standing as an executant. As
a pendant he had a particular affection
and admiration for the music of John
Ireland and indeed this disc ends evocatively
with an example of Helps playing the
English composer’s The Darkened Valley.

Shall We Dance
(1994) fuses impressionism with a layered
density and grows to an impassioned
climax; the composer noted that it embedded
a waltz written by Mischa Levitzki,
one that he heard his mother play often.
There’s a similar sense of allusiveness
and power in the five-movement Piano
Quartet written three years later. The
sketch provided by Helps gives an indication
of the summoned moods (Radiance, Intimacy
and a humorous coda titled Players’
Gossip). It’s certainly true that the
elliptical piano writing gives way to
increased insistence in the opening
movement and one notable feature is
the role for the oratorical solo piano,
which opens the fourth movement solo
until joined some time later by his
string confreres. Perhaps the most immediately
striking however are the Postlude for
horn, violin and piano and the Nocturne
for string quartet. The former is intense
with some frantic high register writing
and an implacable sounding horn. The
latter is more sepulchral and forms
part of the central panel of a Serenade.
Once more one can hear Helps’ fondness
for high register writing – especially
for the violin – and his well crafted
control of sonority. The Ireland is
a wistful tribute from one composer
to another.

The performances are
thoroughly committed. Rising star, Dutch
fiddler Janine Jansen is here and Daniel
Blumenthal takes on the piano parts
with great conviction. His Krenek, elsewhere,
is equally successful. The recording
balance is good, the notes a fusion
of those by the composer and the cellist
here, Frank Dodge.

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